


The Forking Path

by McBangle



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Luke and Leia Switched, Force-Sensitive Leia Organa, Gen, Long Live Feedback Comment Project, Short One Shot, Young Leia Organa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 06:12:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17503151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McBangle/pseuds/McBangle
Summary: Leia Skywalker had long known there was more to Ben Kenobi than her Uncle Owen had told her. Once she realized that her aunt and uncle didn't want her to ask about the strange hermit, she was too stubborn not to track him down.





	The Forking Path

Leia Skywalker had long known there was more to Ben Kenobi than her Uncle Owen had told her.

She’d first noticed him in the market during a routine shopping trip in Anchorhead when she was seven. He had stopped at the tent next to the one her aunt and uncle were shopping in – the one with the grouchy merchant who always scared Leia. The vendor had handed the man in the hooded robe a bag of desert plums without being asked, and had accepted his payment without haggling. It had even seemed as though the crowds had parted for him as he’d walked away.

For all his strangeness, Leia may well have forgotten him, distracted by the next novelty, if not for the obvious fear on her Aunt Beru’s face when Leia had asked who he was.

“He’s no one,” Uncle Owen had answered gruffly. “Just a crazy hermit. You stay away from him!” he’d insisted.

So Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru didn’t want to talk about the strange hermit. Now she’d just _have_ to find out about him.

She spent the next few weeks plotting out how she’d unravel the mystery her aunt and uncle were obviously hiding from her. On their next trip to town, she bided her time waiting for the right moment, when her aunt and uncle were distracted. She found her opportunity when they got into a dispute with a vendor over the price of a pressure relief valve.

“So.” She sidled up to the merchant in a nearby tent with all the subtlety a seven-year-old could muster. “Tell me about the hermit in the hood.”

The Rodian’s antennae twitched. “Kenobi? What do you know of him?”

Leia stuck her chin in the air haughtily. “Oh, I know a lot. What do you know?”

The merchant smiled, leaning across her counter with a twinkle in her large eyes. “He keeps to himself and lives out in the Jundland Wastes. I’ve heard he goes by Ben Kenobi.”

Leia nodded thoughtfully. “Old Ben.” The name suited him.

The Rodian scrunched up her snout. “I think he’s middle-aged by human standards.”

Leia shook her head. “Did you see the grey in his beard? He looks pretty old to me.”

“And how old do you think I am?” The Rodian straightened and put her hands on her hips.

Leia looked her up and down. It was always so difficult to judge the ages of non-humans. “A hundred?”

“Time to find your aunt and uncle, little one.” The Rodian swatted at her playfully.

* * *

Leia looked out for Old Ben every time she visited Anchorhead after that. Any time she could sneak away from her aunt and uncle, she would track him through the streets like a massiff stalking its prey. It wasn’t until many years later that she realized that he’d always known she was following him. He’d taken random turns through the streets, weaving among pedestrians, as part of a game she hadn’t consciously realized they’d been playing.

She could never track him for very long; she couldn’t wander too far from her aunt and uncle without their noticing. On many trips to town, she didn’t see him at all, or she couldn’t sneak off to follow him. Still, she was an observant girl and took her clues where she found them.

As she grew older, her aunt and uncle began to give her more independence. They would send her on small errands while they were in town or even give her a few coins and free time to play. Away from their eyes, she tracked the hermit until there no more buildings to hide behind as she watched him walk south of town until he shrank out of sight against the horizon.

One morning when she was twelve, her aunt pressed several coins into her palm and told her to buy replacement filters from the Tosche station. Leia counted the coins. “This is too much.” She held out the extra coins.

Aunt Beru shook her head. “Take them and have fun. You’re much too serious. A girl your age… you should have friends. Sometimes I think we made a mistake keeping you cooped up so much on the farm.”

“But… I…” Leia protested.

Beru shushed her with a finger in the air. “Your uncle is meeting with the Marstraps today. He won’t be home at least until sunset. Go and have your fun.”

After buying the filters, leftover coins in her pocket, Leia gazed at a circle of kids her age gathered outside the Tosche station game room. She recognized Biggs Darklighter and his friends. Perhaps her aunt was right; perhaps she did need to spend more time with kids her own age.

And yet before she knew it, she had started off on the road out of town.

It didn’t take long until she reached a fork in the path. She stood frozen on the spot, uncertain which way to turn. She knew the wisest choice: she should just turn around and go back. The sun was still high in the sky, and there was plenty of time to play with Biggs and his friends like a normal twelve-year-old instead of wandering the desert like a fool.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, emptying her mind of thoughts. And then she felt it: something that she couldn’t explain, that she had no words for. A sort of tugging, telling her to turn left. Somehow she knew this was the right way to go. She followed that feeling the rest of the way to the hermit’s hut.

Old Ben was already standing at the door to his hut when she approached it. “So you’ve found me at last, young Leia,” he greeted her. “I’d been wondering how long it would take until you would.”

She stared at him wonderingly. “So this is your home. I knew. I don’t know how… something told me I was walking in the right direction.”

He nodded his head as if this made perfect sense to him. “The Force is strong in you, just as it was with your father.”

“You knew my father?” she asked.

“And your mother as well,” he answered. “But come.” He gestured to the door of his hut. “You father would never have forgiven me if he knew I let his daughter stand out in the sand when I’ve a cozy hut.”

She followed him cautiously inside, making sure to stay between him and the door. He was, after all, the “crazy hermit” her uncle and aunt wanted her to avoid, yet something – perhaps the same something that had guided on her on her trip – told her that she could trust him.

He handed her a cup of Bantha milk and gestured to a chair before taking a seat on a bench against the opposite wall of his hut. “You must have questions.”

“Tell me about my mother.” The words rushed out of her.

“She was brave and kind,” he began. “A natural leader. If anyone could have stopped the rise of the Empire, it would have been her. I think she very nearly could have, if… certain things had been different.”

As he spoke, an image came to Leia of a beautiful woman with large brown eyes and soft brown curls. It was as sharp and clear as if her mother were standing in front of her. “I remember her. She was so sad, but she loved me very much.”

Old Ben’s eyebrows shot upwards. “You couldn’t possibly. She died when you were but a day old.”

“And yet I know her face as well as I know my own,” Leia returned calmly.

He ran his hand across his grey-streaked beard. “The Force may yet be stronger in you than I’d realized.”

“And my father?” Leia prompted. “I can’t see his face. He wasn’t there when I was born, was he?”

The hermit shook his head. “He was already gone by the time you were born.” He shifted in his seat. “He was a Jedi Knight. One of the strongest in galactic history. And my Padawan – my apprentice.”

“ _You_ were a Jedi?” Leia asked.

Kenobi chuckled. “Is that so difficult to believe?”

“Yes!” Leia replied. “My uncle told me that all of the Jedi had died.”

“Nearly all.” Kenobi’s face darkened. He stroked his beard for a moment before continuing. “Darth Vader killed the Jedi. He helped usher in the age of the Empire.”

Leia learned forward urgently. “Is that how my father died?”

Kenobi glanced away before responding. “Vader ended your father, along with the rest of the Jedi.”

“And my mother?” she asked.

He shook his head. “She died of a broken heart.”

She rose to her feet. “Train me.”

“Pardon?”

“Train me,” she repeated. “I’ve always known I was meant for something… more. Train me to be a Jedi. I’ll kill Darth Vader and avenge both of my parents’ deaths.”

“Hm…” He gazed at her thoughtfully. “You’re older than most younglings are when they begin their training. Older even than…” He seemed to catch himself, clearing his throat. “You would have much to learn.”

“I’m an eager learner.” Leia squared her shoulders.

“Yes, I can see that you are,” he chuckled before his face turned serious again. “If you truly wish to become a Jedi, then you have a long path ahead of you. It’s not a game or a hobby that you can pick up and drop when you are bored. It will be years before you’re ready to face Vader… years of hard work.”

“I’m prepared for that.” Leia stood resolute.

He nodded appraisingly at her. “I believe you.”

* * *

Years later, when a beat-up old R2 unit she'd recently purchased from Jawa traders played her a hologram of a young prince asking Obi-Wan Kenobi for help, Leia knew exactly where to go.

**Author's Note:**

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